Martinsburg gazette. (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1886-1887, 1887-01-07
LOUIE AND /.

shouldn't haze been surprised at it all !;
or If I had even been bright and witty
butsuch little simplet0n as I
] never in all my life had the least ex-
pectation of lovers. or Of any sort Of adj
miring glances; and never had any. And
sometimes mother used to say she guessed
il was just as we'll, for If she had had to
dress two girls out for their pretty looks,
as she did one, it would have beggared
her. Mother only had little money,
just barely enough to live on, and some
Of the principal going every year, but it
wouldn't have been in human nature,
having q daughter SO pretty as Louie,
not to want her to have the best that
would set off her peach-bIoom beauty !;
and, for my part, never grudgcd Louie
q rose or a ribbon. couldn't havew worn
them If had had them, for was far
too proud to try to do what Nature
hadn't, or to pretend | thought such
things became me; and liked my print
dresses and plain collars better for my
self.
But when Louie was dressed in her mus
Inns till she looked like one Of the old
fashioned blush roses, 3D. white without
and so delicately flushed within, her
lovely yellow hair breaking out in slnny
curls all over her head, and she all radi-
ant, as you might shy, with her skin, her
smiles, her teeth, her great blue, beam
ing eyes then used to like to look ut
her as much as any of her lovers did; to
look at her as would look at any lovely
picture; and she always turned from her
gaycst scenc--the dear little person ito
give her sweetest smile to me.
So when Dennis began all at once to
come to our house, as If he had just seen
Louie for the first time in his life, / was
only delighted. For every one who knew
him loved and honored Dennis Reed who
was the soul Of all integrity; and il he
wasn't beauty himself, he was stalwart
son of Saul. and had the incest Little place
In the region "a cottage up lane, over
looking the river, and with wood be-
hind its orchard and across the railway
cut, to keep off the east wind-if the
east wind could ever blow In that sunny
nook with q garden spot made and
blooming In every Granny Of the rocks
around it.
He marriel her, and took her away;
and happier nest Of singing birds than
that IN the little cottage among the rocks
and flowers could nowhere have been
found, unless it were in my own heart,
at the sight Of the happiness there.
But then mother fell sick, and it took
allmy Time to care for her; and / couldn't
go up to Louie's very often; for / Ind
everything to do at home, and was tired
out by nightfall, and often up half the
night BESIDES. Louie couldn't very well
come down often; and if she had come,
] she wouldn't have known what to do.
Poor motheri Once remember, she
said to me, i dom know but it's more
satisfactory to have one daughter plain,
than anything else And It made nv
heart bound. And then Il reproached
my selfshness in caring TO have her say
that over Louie's head, as it were; but /
remembered it long afterward and some
times it used to give me throb of JOY
when everything was dreary, and /
seemed to be alone in the world.
For mother died presently. And then
It turned out that she had been living on
her little property more than we had
dreamed, and Louie's outfit and her
own long Illness and its bills had used
up money. And when everything was
paid, they had only enough left fer me
TO hire one room as sort Of refuge when
T came home at night from working at
my trade; for I had quite knack at
dressmalxing did not put ON mourn
ing; for / was glad that mother was out
Of pain, and I was glad that she was
gone before she knew that all the prop
erty was gone, and she, with her proud
spirit, would have had to be dependent.
But Louie did and oh! what beauty
she was, with her black grapes falling
around her, So Waxen, fair and rosy and
TRANSPARENT! OF course she didn't miss